this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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More war in the sandbox coming soon
Why did you call it that?
It's fairly common slang among people in the military. With "going to play in the sandbox" being a euphemism for a deployment in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Yes. That is the problem I'm pointing out. The slang used by imperialist soldiers shouldnt be used by people who claim to criticize imperialism.
It is really hard not to let the oppressors lexicon invade yours and in that act change your message in subtle ways.
For instance, using a term like bleeding-heart. They also do their best to obscure words and change their meaning. Think of woke or feminism as examples.
Yes, so it's good to point it out when people do it.
Not the poster, but I'm going to assume they say so because: "Middle East has lots of sand = sandbox" with the additional layer of meaning of "sandbox" as a place where children play and make stuff up, implying (perhaps) that the Middle East tends to be the place where the wealthy and powerful "play around," treating the people who live there (and the war machine they bring to it) as toys for their (sick) amusement. At least this is how I read it.
Yes, I'm saying that using the term is obviously problematic as it has been used to devalue the space in dozens of countries and the lives of millions of people. This commenter made this comment as though they're critical of US imperialism but reproduced its enforced understanding of these regions.